Sleep has been scarce lately, as our nights have been interrupted by the some strange sounds!!! Not only was there a "JuJu" ceremony at the village which included singing, drumming and hooting and hollaring all night long, but we have another regular visitor.....how can I describe it?
Imagine at about one in the morning you hear a child of about one year old crying, then bawling out there in the night. The child sounds maybe lost, maybe hungry, maybe even injured!! Just as you decide that you will run out into the blackness to find this child - the cry changes....and you realize...that is definately NOT a child!! But what is it then?!? As you lay there in the darkness, eyes wide, listening....your mind and imagination take over.....is it something other wordly??A gremlin, a monster? A demon? Something attempting to sound like a child in need, to lure unsuspecting do gooders out into the night??!! Whatever it is, the disguise isn't working, because it cannot master the true sound a human child makes.....the sound is chilling....it is loud....it is right on the other side of the bedroom wall....

As I lay there with my mind racing trying to make sense of this sound, to rationalize it....somehow by the grace of God, i fell asleep.

In the morning i was asked if I heard the the thing crying last night. Yes I had. It was then explanied to me that the sound was made by a wildcat, that it is NOT the normal cry of the wildcat - instead, it is a bad omen in this culture to hear this in the night. It is said to fortell a death in the village. Very comforting.
We have heard this noise now for the past two nights, right on the other side of the wall. And, as creepy and bone-chilling as it is...we really, really. just want to get a good night's sleep!!!

"Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood." -Marie Curie